NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - LeSean McCoy trade reaction

Episode Date: March 4, 2015

A room filled with heroes -- Dan Hanzus, Gregg Rosenthal, Chris Wesseling and Marc Sessler -- react to the LeSean McCoy-Kiko Alonso trade and what it means for the Eagles and Bills. Plus, more reaction to Peyton Manning's reported new contract, the Matt Cassel trade and free agency team needs.Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. The Around the NFL podcast. It's working on its English accent. Welcome back to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. My name is Dan Hansis, and I am joined by a room filled with heroes, teaming with heroes, Mark Sessler, Chris Wessling, and Greg Rosenthal. What's up, boys? Hey, Dan.

What is that? Teaming. Just teeming. I mean, we're all together. We haven't had many of these. I'm excited for this show. We've had hundreds of these. Mark took some heat on Twitter a couple days ago for not being in.

Really? Somebody said that you were the Johnny Carson of the show, and I thought that was a little... I think it's misunderstood that if we're not here on a Monday, it's because we're on vacation. It's actually because we work on Saturday. On the weekends and whatnot. No, I'm excited. And I've been looking towards this show in particular as the one that Mark is going to lead the way he's kind of a key to this whole podcast we're talking about leadership skills it's your time

mark all right let's do it i don't know what to tell you i'm not sure where that's coming from uh all right by the i'm excited about mark today there is a salty cessler in the air and you never know what happens and td i would say keep on your toes oh yes when that happens everything's up in the air here we go we got a big show today big big show we we're getting a bookie brooks back in here because as we get closer and closer to the draft, you want to talk to a guy that's plugged in and who's more plugged in that Bucky Brooks are big-time college football analyst,

and he knows a lot about the pros, too. He played in the NFL. So we'll get him in here to talk. We're going to go through Greg, who's, you know, shepherds this group. He retired into a meeting with several shadowy league figures and came up with an entire free agent superlatives breakdown for us to go through day by day,

day where we're breaking down all different elements of free agency and the post that we put up on Wednesday, the best fits in free agency and also the best under the radar fits. So we have that up on the website. And by meeting, you mean I basically copied and pasted what we did last year. Let's do this again. A good magician never reveals the secrets. And then, of course, what we always do, we do the news. So we check in with the great TD.

How are you, buddy? What's going on, guys? How are you doing? We're doing good. I think it's good, you know. Yeah. How's Mark? Doing good, buddy?

I'm fine. What? Let's do it. Let's hit the news. All right, let's do it. I was designed to save the world. That wasn't Transformers, aren't it? No, it wasn't, guys.

Having you guys heard this latest Avengers trailer, the social media buzz today for this? So what? I mean, the latest Avengers trailer. See, here's what a big question is. You need to know your audience, and your audience in this case is not all the listeners. In this case, it's us. We don't know the event.

Can we have a drop sometime that doesn't include a superhero? Well, it's up to you guys to keep the world updated on the NFL world, and it's up to us to keep you guys updated in the pop culture. Yeah, trust me. We know what's going on pop culture, but you don't force feed us the superhero. Yeah, because who would hear about this big indie movie, The Avengers. without you promoting it. By the way, you call it the latest because there's been too many of them.

Well, there's been two trailers, and this is the third one. I didn't realize our podcast audience is eight-year-olds. Well, they are. According to Wes, you know, just saying, by the way. Oh, man. Hey, hey, hate, hate, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. I do like that one. Oh, Jesus.

If that start, be better, TV, come on. Let's start with Lashon McCoy, the big news that broke on Tuesday. Lashon McCoy, out of Philly, traded to the Buffalo Bills for Kiko Alonzo, the linebacker. One of the biggest player-for-player swaps we've seen in years, perhaps a decade going back to Mark. I think you pointed it out on Twitter. It was exactly 10 years to the day prior that there was the big Clinton Portis for Champ Bailey trade. So now Lashon McCoy headed up to Orchard Park, Kiko Alonzo, to Philly. Wessling, who won this trade?

I think both teams won, but I really, I know the Eagles caught more flag for it, and I see this from their point of view, and to me, Chip Kelly is sort of in a situation where Bill Belichick was when he came to New England. He's going to institute his system. He's going to make unpopular moves, but $12 million against the cap for a running back who declined across the board last year, and to me, I mean, he averaged Greg had this stat earlier in a day. 19 players with 250 touches, he had the lowest per touch average in the NFL, 4.3 yards per touch.

Darren Sprouls averaged 7.4 behind the same offensive line. He just wasn't as productive as he needed to be to be drawing $12 million against the cat. I don't think any running back is. I think that's part of it is that they must have asked, there must have been some conversation behind the scenes where they said, listen, you're talented, we want to keep you around, but not at that price tag. and they balked. And NFL media's Michael Silver says that they called up the bills and the conversation was 20 minutes long.

How great is that? That's how it should be. That's terrific. It's like, we like Kiko Alonzo. And they're like, really? We could get McCoy. Hey, Rex, you like Lashad McCoy? Yeah, yeah, let's do it.

You know, one thing I think is a little unfair. I know McCoy wasn't as good last year, but he's still, I think he's going to be, is his age 27 season coming up? Yes. Isn't it seem a little premature to say that he's in decline And sometimes players don't always have They can't top each year prior And he was the best running back in the league

Two years running before this past season Which was still 1500 total yard season He wasn't a bad running back Well and behind a line that used 11 linemen last year They were not what they were the year before That was a factor That was a factor And that's why I think it is a win-win

I don't think that's so crazy We don't have to have a hot take I think Philly has the safer side It's hard to see this going too poorly for them because I think Chip Kelly believes he can plug in another running back into his system and have it work. And I kind of believe it too. I mean, he got rid of Deshawn Jackson. He's creating yards. It's a deep running back crop in the draft and free agency.

I think that all be fine. But it wouldn't shock me if Lashon McCoy continues what has so far been on track for a Hall of Fame consideration type of career. We don't think of McCoy like that, and he's going to have to keep going in this trajectory. All I'm saying is, if you look at his six first years in the league, he's been one of the 25, let's say, best players at any position. And so if you're going to bet and take a risk with the guy, it's not like his salary's that crazy. It's $8 million a year. Both the Eagles and the bills have plenty of cap room, so they could fit that in. And it's not crazy to imagine McCoy having two really good seasons with them.

I think this trade is about resource allocation. You know you have a competitive advantage. Resource allocation. Yeah, corporate. Chip Kelly's offensive system gives them a competitive advantage. So why not allocate your resources to defense? Sure. They know they need to overhaul the secondary.

You put Kiko Alonzo along with Michael Kendricks. You have possibly the league's fastest inside linebacker duo, and you've got a good defensive line, so you build up a better defense and put all your money on that side of the ball. And we know that he values, we've heard this over and over the last spring for hours. It's quarterbacks and offensive linemen is what he puts his. That's where he wants his money, if anything. And it is interesting, though, from an angle of, is he under pressure like Belichick was to some degree,

even in that first Super Bowl season in New England, they got off to a bad start, and people wanted Belichick's head. And if it happens in Philly, in two back-to-back seasons where you've left DeShon Jackson and Lashon McCoy walk out the door, if you get off to an ugly start, people in that city are going to go crazy. But they would no matter what in Philly. Sure. That's why I love Chip Kelly. He doesn't care. He doesn't care about taking the criticism.

He just does it. He has a strong vision and a singular. philosophy, and that's why I think he's similar to Belich. But the one thing is, and I've talked about this about him being the genius, and no one can outthink the great Chip Kelly. But let's just calm down a little bit. He hasn't shown anything in the NFL beyond a couple decent seasons. So if I'm an Eagles fan, I'm not completely all in on Chip Kelly definitely making the

right decisions here. He's hanging his onions here a little bit, and I respect that. And I think, Greg, it's part of the reason why you like what he's doing here, because He doesn't care what other people think. But also, this is pretty risky. You're giving away the best deep threat in the league, arguably, last year, and now you're getting rid of one of the best running backs of his generation in his prime this year. He took over a bad team.

I mean, I know they had talent, but they weren't a winning team, and he's won 10 games with him. So I think you have to give them credit. He turned Nick Foles and Mark Sanchez, and anyone that can turn quarterbacks that are mediocre into very useful quarterbacks. I think that's a legit skill. We've seen it. Dan, not to worry.

He's got Riley Cooper locked up for $5 million a year. Bottom line, though, it is risky also to go into a season paying a running back $12 million a year. If they went to him and tried to say, let's do something here and he wouldn't do it, they almost had no other move than to release him or trade him. I don't agree with that. If McCoy had a good year and he ran the way that Chip Kelly wants his running backs to do it, which is a little more north-south. I think it was a lot about McCoy not really having a great season,

and not being great along the goal line. I think you'd pay him. It was only an $8 million salary. There was something going on there because Bruce Ariens on NFL AM said, oh, we knew that this was, there was something going on here. Right. Yeah, they were looking to trade him, but I think it was more about how McCoy played

than it even was about the salary. Because $8 million is not that crazy. They have $50 million now in Cap Room. If he was one of the best two or three running backs in the league, they thought he was, they would do that. Everything ties back to money, and I think this ties back to money in a large way. What about Kiko Alonzo, by the way? Do we want to talk about him at all here?

Yeah. Yeah, I just want to say real quick, it goes beyond what both you guys said, money and how he played, because Leightani and Thomason and Ian Rappaport both said, LaShaon McCoy and Chip Kelly, the relationship was strained by the end of the year. They just weren't getting along. McCoy didn't like Kelly's practice schedule and thought his legs weren't in good enough shape on game day. I mean, with Alonzo, Kelly's getting a guy that he's coached before that's shown he can be great at the NFL level.

And Wes mentioned that Kendrickson and Alonzo is going to be the identity of that defense. Those two guys in the middle flying around, I mean, that could be pretty fun. The thing I'd worry about, if I'm an Eagles fan, is, man, Chip Kelly has a lot of power. Like, we know he's a good coach, but I don't know that he's a good GM. They spent a lot of the last couple weeks cutting guys that Chip Kelly signed, not just that Howie Roseman signed. James Casey, not big-time signings, Kerry Williams, Todd Harriman's a Howie Roseman type. Bradley Fletcher, they had no interest in re-signing him. Let's see. Chip Kelly's wildly aggressive. I think they're going to spend like crazy, and they're

going to be a lot of fun who can cut more of their own players reggie mackenzie or chip kelly what a battle from buffalo's side though it's easy to see why they got rid of alonzo they have linebackers coming out of their ears and they want david harris and free agency so you've got preston brown and nigel bradam who both played like above average starters last year and if they moved to a three four those two guys would be ticketed for the inside not the outside and then david harris is also an inside linebacker and let's give credit to connor or our uh new jersey based correspondent who was on this very podcast two days ago and said that Rex Ryan has the ability to get GMs to act

maybe not impulsively but to make big splashy moves and that's exactly what happened. Good job. You haunted soul. Well, they don't have a quarterback. What was that one? This thing on. Rex Ryan calling the shot, man.

That is going to be especially funny in three years. They should play that like when they introduced them at Castle trade. Well, we're going to get to Castle. And the second, when you don't have a quarterback, you have to make everything else as amazing as it can be. And on paper, at least, this Bills team with Rex Ryan and all that defensive talent and now adding McCoy to a skill position group that was already pretty fun.

I mean, that is a fun-looking team in Buffalo. Before Greg gets too excited about the bills, so let's talk about the quarterback, trade was agreed to. It's only got to make me more experience. On Wednesday, you know, there was no secret of the bill. bills have been looking to upgrade of the position or at least find an alternative to E.J. Manuel. They try to get Josh McCown, but, you know, the Browns wanted him too bad, Mark. The Browns wanted to get McCown in their building, so they signed him.

Talk about a team that always swings for the fences. So the bills instead, they would hit the trade market, and they land Matt Castle from the Minnesota Vikings in exchange for some deep draft picks next year and this year. And the Vikings now, or excuse me, the bills now have, well, we assume is their starting quarterback for the 2015 season. Matt Castle will be the guy. Mark, you're shaking your head. Why? Well, part of me a little bit is like, wait, you are the, this almost feels like when the Browns drafted Mansell, then the Josh Gordon news hit like 24 hours later. It's like, you have made the trade that has the NFL talking and you're exciting. We were talking about

Rex Ryan, LaShawn McCoy, and then bang, hey, guess what? Your quarterback is Matt Castle. So all of Buffalo is suddenly back in a major midwinter depression. Greg disagrees, you know, Tweedo dumb and Tweedle D over here, West and Sessler, are on NFL now just killing this street. How could they do this? Of course we could. This would have been a terrible miraculous. Thank you. TD, yeah, TD.

Big bounce back. They gave up nothing in the trade. So it's basically a free agent pickup. Dan only cares about the sound bites. That's all he's all the time. They're paying him the same amount of money or less that Chad Hennie and Matt Moore and plenty of backups have made over the. last few years. And it's my vantage, and obviously you disagree, that

the difference, I would take Castle over McCown and Hoyer and even Jake Locker in their situation, I think Castle is a better option than those guys. But to my larger point, what is the difference between all those guys? They had to sign someone. They had to pick up a veteran.

So if you're, you know, saying, oh, man, Sanchez, that was the way that they were really going to get it done. It's like, you know, we were killing every one of these quarterbacks. And all you're saying is he's the best of a bunch of terrible quarterback. Sure, but you have to do something. You have to pick up someone, so I can't kill him for doing that.

If you love the Kyle Orton area in Buffalo, you're going to love Kyle Orton Light. Because Matt Castle was benched for Brady Quinn two years ago. The Chiefs decided at the end of the year, they would rather watch Brady Quinn. That was a different situation. They were losing. They wanted to see what Quinn could do. Give him his first chance ever. Castle was not working there.

Which tells you what they thought of Matt Castle, who one of my favorite quotes in collision, Low Crossers, Wink Martindale, the old Broncos' defense. coordinator said Matt Castle couldn't hit Black Beauty in a field of white mice. I still don't get that. Well, if he can't spot Black Beauty in a field of white mice, how's he going to find an open receiver? Oh, so he can't, oh, he sees it. I thought it was more like an accuracy thing.

I think that's included in it, but yeah, it's about reading the field. It's hard to keep up with Wynx. He's not a good quarterback. Right. Yeah. Wink Martindale. Yeah, what a vanguard of quarterback evaluation talent that guy is. Where is he at right now?

I'm just kidding. The, by the way, I don't know why I'm taking a shot. A lot of shots. The Tweedled D and Tweedles, Greg, let's open the floor up for an apology right now. I officially apologize. I guess I was not offended by it. I was preemptively attacking you guys because I knew you both hate Matt Castle with an behind the scenes at the...

We've already been arguing for hours about this. At the news desk before while Mark and Wes were doing their NFL now hit, and I was with Greg, and I wrote up the post, Greg even said, like, you know, because he was happy, he thought it was a good deal for the Bills. And he's like, oh, I know Wes is going to come back and, you know, bury this. Sure enough, first thing Wes gets back, he's something just taking down Matt Castle. So this was all in the stars. Greg has this image of the Bills.

There's a fascinating fun team to watch. You can't pay me to watch Matt Castle play quarterback. They're going to be boring to watch. Here's the reality. He was 5 and 4 with a lousy Vikings team a couple years ago, and he had a couple really good starts. One with, I think, 40 points against the Eagles, 400. yards against the Steelers. He's good enough to play six or eight

decent games. I think he's slightly better than the other quarterbacks up. Yeah, I mean what are you going to do? But we knew that. There was no one out there. No trade for Mike Glennon. Go trade for Kirk Cousins. Let's talk about a slightly better quarterback. His name is Peyton Manning. He's going to be on the Denver Broncos, most

likely. ESPN's Chris Mortensen reports that Manning has agreed to take a $4 million pay cut reducing his salary from 19 million in 2015 to 15 million, which Greg will start with you. You were initially under the belief that there's no way that Peyton Manning would take it pay cut. This isn't confirmed.

This is a report, but it looks like he might have. And perhaps that will clear the way for some signings for the Broncos and they could shake and bake here. Yeah, I'm eating crow on that one. More power to Peyton Manning that he would do this. I expect when we see the details that he'll be able to make the money back in incentives or some sort of bonuses. So it's not really a thing.

That won't back now. Maybe you'll have to have a great season or off to stay healthy for 16. We'll see. I'm just saying we don't know the details. But more power to him. It helps out the Broncos. It's not like it's a bad move. It made sense all along.

And it was always unfair to me, by the way, just as an aside, that when Tom Brady signed those deals that were, you know, tricky, how you actually can figure out how much he was making. And Peyton Manning was painted as this selfish guy. You know, he's just getting paid. He's trying to get the paid most he can. hopefully now people give the guy respect for taking a pay cut whatever he's bearing up for years.

Well, what Brady did actually take less money than a lot of quarterbacks would have? We're supposed to respect him now because he did something in response to everyone criticizing him? Who said he did that? Instead of doing it on his own? That's not necessarily what happened. That's the way you're painting the picture.

And Tom Brady's contract, as Greg, you were saying in the cafeteria today, he ended up getting plenty of money with his deal too. It's not like he was still a competitive advantage. Whereas Manning's was not a competitive. Brady was just a little misleading in that he did take more short term money. It's like he got a raise on the initial years on the contract

that was there, but then he tacked on years where he was a total bargain. And he decided... Quarterbacks in general are underpaid, so I don't think what Peyton Manning did for Indianapolis and what he's done for Denver, he's not made enough money. Right. So I'm not... I'm not killing him on that front. Not to mention the Papa Gino's, or Papa John's

commercial. Oh, yeah. He'll make up that $4 million in two creepy commercials. Yeah, to me, it's like, all right, what are your priorities? You're 38, 39 years old. You're only playing to win a Super Bowl. You've made more money than any player in NFL history. What are your priorities? Do you want to win a Super Bowl?

Do you want to give your team the best chance to win a Super Bowl? Then take a pick up. Dan, you made an interesting point, though, that you thought the Broncos have had Manning over a barrel, really, that they sort of had the leverage in this situation, which is interesting. That implies that they were ready to cut him. I think they were.

Wow, that's really interesting. I just want to know more about that. I don't think that they were prepared to cut him, but I think that they knew that what, could he really do they were going to back him in the corner and say like listen take a pay cut man and then his options then were to ask for his release and start fresh at age 39 somewhere or just take the money and force them to pay him then you look like a selfish guy i mean i think they were in a good spot and manning had no choice but to copulate i think john elway is one of the

most headstrong individuals they say copulate he had no problem moving on from tim tibo copulating copulating would have been a weird move on this you did well I have the real story that's it you have a great point though on Elway

on Elway well the copulation we had to at least sorry Mark I thought maybe I should note that I just think it's like I do think that the Broncos if it came to an ugly you know

head to head thing they would have moved on from potential and like it's absolutely that they would have just let him dictate the scenario at all If John Elway was the kind of won a stare-down like that, and he was ready to move. I mean, he really is the man. I don't know.

He got Peyton Manning to go there. He's made a lot of- This one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, take a pay cut, and having sort of a game of chicken where they're almost threatening to cut him. If I'm Manning and they don't resign Julius Thomas, I'm going to be a little peeved about that. Right. Well, they have a lot of guys. Who else do they have?

Orlando Franklin. They want to give Demarius Thomas. I know Franklin's gone. A contract. Rahim Moore. Terrence Knighton. There's about five or six Broncos in our top 101 list, which, by the way, we've now put into a fancy new look on NFL. com.

And you can go to NFL.com slash free agency. Checking that out right now. Let's check that out and populate it. Moving forward, this is news that came down Tuesday, evening. Andre Johnson, or Monday evening. Andre Johnson has been granted permission to seek a trade from the Texans. The Texans approach Johnson and said you're not going to have the same role in this offense anymore.

He might catch 40 balls instead of 80 next year. Andre Johnson said what? Trade me or cut me. And from what we're hearing, Greg, a trade's probably not going to happen. So Andre Johnson is going to end up hitting free agency. Finally, after I feel like we've been writing Andre Johnson landing spot post for two years now. Well, Mark did write one last year. And it holds up very well.

read it right now all the teams you put on the landing spots mark pretty much all apply yeah that's what we're yeah we're talking about this morning like for for two two or three years andre johnson was talking about how he wasn't happy here here and there and now finally this is the end of this partnership after 12 years or whatever what's what's the laughing i don't know i'm just laughing for no reason all right that's good that's good it's good podcast uh so gregg mr funny bone explain to us where Andre Johnson fits in the NFL landscape in 2015. I think he'll get a, and this is sad to say because it's Brian, I mean, it's under, I think he'll get like a Brian heartline.

He'll be right around the heart line in terms of, in terms of contract, which is like, what, $6, $7 million a year. I think he'll get more than Steve Smith got last year for sure. I think teams will look at him as a solid, legit starter. I mean, there's a million teams that would want them, right? I think only certain teams, really, though, would he ever entertain going to? It's got to be a Seattle Seahawks potentially. Greg's team, the Patriots, who Dan hates whenever he's mentioned in a free agent,

Chase. That's always seemed to come up whenever a big name comes up. It's because when we talk about big names that are at the end of their career that want to win a Super Bowl ring, there's a short list of teams. You're not going to take a risk and go to the Bears. Here's one that kind of, I think, is interesting. Dan's favorite team, the San Diego Supercharger. They're borderline contender.

Philip Rivers is a great quarterback. They don't have a number one receiver, really. I think that might make some sense. They have some tap around. Mark, you have a thought on this, don't you? No. On the Seahawks? Oh, we just mentioned the Seahawks, yeah.

I was too busy looking up the Chargers roster. Can he play anymore, though? I mean, there are numbers beyond just the statistics that per target, he was one of the least effective receivers. He was targeted almost constantly in the red zone whenever Houston got down there. He's not a good red zone. He only had three touchdowns. He's never had 10 touch ends in the season.

You know, so it's just one of those things where, be careful, though, if you sign Andre Johnson and think you're getting 2008 Andre Johnson because you're not. I think, though, be careful of evaluating him when, you know, Ryan Mal and Ryan Fitzpatrick and Tom Savage are throwing him the ball. That kind of like Steve Smith,

but I think he has a little more juice left. And Steve Smith was a really good pickup for the Ravens overall. I think Johnson has a little more juice left than Smith did a year. Even just two years ago, and it was short-lived, but him in Case Keenham looked good on some of those deep balls. I mean, they found a way to get him more involved when the right quarterback was in there. No, I agree with Mark and Greg. You have to think about the quarterbacks and it was his first year in Bill O'Brien's system. Maybe Bill O'Brien just didn't

want to emphasize it. Can he succeed, though, away from Case Keen? That's a good question. I think you could ask that about a lot of odd receivers. All right, let's talk about Troy Palomalu. NFL Media Insider Ian Rapport reported Wednesday that the organization, the Pittsburgh Steelers believe the celebrated safety has played his last game for the Steelers, according to two team sources. The defender is not in the Pittsburgh's plans for 2015. The only question is how the exit will play out. Will he retire?

Will it be forced to release him? And if that happens, will Troy Palomolo try to continue his career? Wes, is Troy Palomalu shot? I think he is. And I think we saw that in the Ravens playoff game when he was watching from the sideline. as Will Allen, a journeyman, took his spot on the field. And, you know, and I think he's just a liability in coverage now. And it's not his fault.

He played with a band in his entire career and his body's failing him. I don't like that the Steelers want him to retire. I get where they're coming from. They want to put a nice bow on this and make it nice and neat, and he'll retire as a Steeler. But, you know, if he still wants to play, what about Dick LeBow down in Tennessee, taking him and Ike Taylor and having them come in and teach that defense?

What is what the Steelers always trying to force people to retire, by the way? You know, they tried to do it with Bruce Ariens. That was stupid. We read today, Ed Bouchette was, they're very hopeful that Palamalu will retire so they don't have to release him. But they have as many salary cap problems as any team in the league, and the deadline to get under it is Monday. So it seems like he's going to be released in the meantime.

Ian, our NFL media insider, I referred to him that as earlier, so on second match. Oh, okay. Just call me an eruption. Well, I hadn't mentioned it, though, so I feel like I want to give him his due. Okay. There is an answer to the question. He thinks that Palomalu will retire if the Steelers cut him, basically.

There's an answer to the question you ask. Why are the Steelers always trying to do this? They're not some mega conglomerate corporation running that team. It's a family-run team, and they consider this kind of stuff valuable that his legacy would be only with the Pittsburgh Steelers. I'm not saying it's right or wrong, but that's why. That's a good point. There's some dry cleaning operation on the corner. I mean, how much money are they making by now?

They must be figuring it out. They definitely put a lot of stock in that this has only ever been in the Rooney family, and it's a family run, and I think the players know that. So you think they have points on Kate Mara's acting career? That's probably got some dollars coming in. Yeah, that's a good point. And finally, Randall Cobb and the Green Bay Packers, this is, I mean, this is crazy. Mark, is this really going to happen?

happen that Cobb and the Packers are not going to get a deal done. Cobb's agent Jimmy Sexton has rejected the Packers' offer of a five-year deal worth between $8 million annually, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, getting closer to free agency where a lot of teams are going to be very interested in Randall Cobb. Are they going to botch this? They've got to stay together. I don't know if it's a botch because it may not be the way that they operate. I think they just handed a giant contract to Jordy Nelson,

who they don't want to have Cobb's contract. you know, supersede that by a big amount. It's a lot of money to pour into a position group. And if Cobb, you know, he's about to hit the free agent market and someone wants to go crazy and outbid him, and I think Cobb knows the teams like Oakland, Jacksonville, or what he could potentially break the bank for him, that he's not going to agree to a town-friendly, green bay-friendly deal.

I hope common sense prevails here. They need each other. The Packers have watched, they've had the rate of attrition at wide receiver over the last three years where they've watched Donald Driver, James Jones, James, Greg Jennings, and Jim Michael Finley walk out the door, and Devante Adams, Jeff Janice, Jared Aberderas, and Richard Rogers walk in.

Who? Who is after Janus? Richard Rogers, Jared Aberderas, Jeff Janice? That guy was made up. That's the first Jared Aberderas mentioned in the podcast. These are the guys who are replacing Legends, and if you lose Cobb on top of that, to me, your wide receivers go from a strength to a liability. Well, let's back off calling James Jones and Jermichael Finley Legends here.

Well, I mean, you love James. You were driving the term, Michael Fenley, train. I love to say we're calling the legends is all. But Reggie McKenzie helped draft a couple of those guys. He may be the one to go after Cobb. If you're Randall Cobb, great. You sign a contract for two or three million more per year. You end up on a team going nowhere with a quarterback who won't be nearly as good as Aaron Rogers.

And you're the youngest free agent on the market. In another four or five years, if you stay with Rogers, you've got a chance for another mega contract. If you go to Jacksonville or Oakland, who knows what's going to have. happen to your market value. It's going to be tough for guys like Ted Thompson who don't usually spend in free agency and they want to be fiscally responsible because I think just new pay scales are going to be set this year. You have to forget what you think Randall Cobb is worth. He's going to make $12 million. And if you really think Randall Cobb is that important to your team, I mean the Packers are $40, $50 million under the cap. Well, and it's like the post that Dan wrote over the

weekend on Vincent Jackson where they didn't go for a pay cut with him, that that kind of jacked up the wide receiver market right there. By the way, just circling back to the Peyton Manning rap sheet, NFL media insider Ian Rappaport, also now reporting that it's a $4 million pay cut. And it is not clear at this time, Greg, if there are any incentives to make up that lost money. So it'll be interesting to see how that shakes out. I guess no one's crying for Peyton Manning's bank account or anything. Yes, and that's what's happening.

Hey, TD, is Bucky Brooks rolled in yet? He's on his way. Okay. Okay. He's on his way. All right. There he is. By the way, all right.

So we have a couple of minutes. Hey, by the way, you said this is a big podcast for Mark, Greg. Where do you stand there? I think Mark's been doing an incredible job at everything. I don't think so, too. You don't think you're doing well? No. You're asking him a lot.

You said you wanted to carry this show. I wrote that down. I don't know. Mark says he doesn't know where it was coming from, and I don't either. It's good to be random. Keep people on their toes. I'd give myself about a minus. I also threatened to stab you with a plastic fork earlier at the

at the huddle today. That got my thinking. That really had nothing. I could give you a ticket to HR, just for the record. I want to keep that on the down low. Well, while we wait for Buckley, why don't we just move on to our next segment? And we talked about Greg's big-time free agency rollout session

that is all over the website right now. Let's talk about the biggest team needs in free agency. And we'll break this down into two categories, just the biggest overall needs, and we all, each of us for the around the NFL group, wrote one that jumped out to us, and then also one, a need that's under the radar. So maybe nothing. You know, when they say under the radar, Greg, they mean, you know, not right on the surface. Maybe not quite as obvious.

You know, not obscure necessarily, just under the radar. So we'll go through those. So why don't we start, gentlemen? Chris Wessling, you are the scientists. So I'm going to throw it to you to get going here. You actually, because you, do you have two here, Wes? No, you have just one. All right.

So your biggest need that you see right now for a team. Tampa Bay Buccaneers' offensive line, which is the worst in the NFL last year, and they're set to release Anthony Collins if they can't find a taker for him per NFL Media Insider Ian Rappaport. Rapopold. That will leave. A lot of pop today.

Well, as he should. Yes. That will leave the blind side wide open for the number one overall draft pick at quarterback if it's James Winston. So you've got no left tackle, you don't have a right guard, and you had the worst offensive line in the NFL last year. You can't put a quarterback behind that offensive line. And unfortunately, there are no great left tackles in free agency this year. So what are they going to do? Maybe try to shoehorn Brian Belaga in there?

I don't know. Orlando Franklin. Doug Free? Those are not attractive. options. That's quite a major need. Mark Sessler. I look to Cleveland in the wide receiver position, and I think it puts a lot of pressure on Ray Farmer, the general manager, because last year he went into the pre-jraft process squawking about how teams like the Seattle Seahawks don't need to draft wide receivers high and that he held that same philosophy. And then Cleveland, you know,

with the first round that they had, decided to pass up the greatest wide receiver draft in many, many years. I didn't even think about that. So there's another good draft, but there's also a good crop of wide receivers. So, you know, outside of the concept of growing your own talent, they need to get better at this position right away. And it's uninspiring for Browns fans that out of the gate, they're talking to Brian Hartline, if he's going to be a starter in Cleveland, that's as hard as selling Matt Castle to the Buffalo Bills. You've got to do more than that, and they've got to hit. They have two number one picks again. One of those has to be a wide receiver.

Heartline's okay as a rotation-y player. As long as, it all depends on the contract. If he's their third receiver, I'm not going to get too worked up about it. Your goal is not to make plays, Brian Hartline is your receipt. I mean, what is their first round pick, by the way? 12. 12. So you might be able to get one of those three.

You know, DJ really loves Devonthe Parker. Well, and that might be there. He's been linked to them in multiple mock drafts, Parker. I like that. By the way, Brian Hartlines splits the season where some of the worst splits ever see from a wide receiver i think it was 16 games west can you help me with those 16 games i think less than 500 yards like 450 474 yards he has averaged he's played six years and he's averaged two touchdowns per year as an NFL starter that's not getting it done it was not a good fit for

that offense yeah i take back what i said you don't want to sign brian hartley not just because of everything you're said here but because how much if you're going to spend money in free agency this is a good year to get someone that's a legit player don't aim for the middle because you're sign heartline and a top level. And they have like $60 million. Right, exactly. This is the year to do it. They could draft someone, get someone, you got Hawkins in the middle, and then you're good. Let me throw out one, a need, the Chargers need a running back. Philip Rivers threw the ball a lot last year, and he got hit a lot last year, and he's still a very effective quarterback. A great quarterback, but you need to give him some help. And Ryan Matthews, you know, he had that one

really good year, but he's always hurt. He's a free agent now. I think you've got to let him go out the door and go get a running back that you could put behind Phillip Rivers that you can count on and as we know this is a nice little year for some running backs in the fold i like i like the idea and i made a point of it in our write-up that i thought the cowboys did a really nice job protecting robo another 30-something quarterback with demarko murray marco murray maybe he goes to san diego and he becomes philip rivers security blanket that's my biggest need i think there's been some worry from the DeMarco Murray camp maybe what this market's going to look like for him

that he's such a star but are they really going to be able to get him a star-like contract but then you think about the teams that could be out there looking for a starting running back San Diego, Indianapolis, maybe even Philadelphia I don't know if they're going to want to spend a lot of money Arizona I mean these are teams that could really use a between the tackles guy that would be a great fit I'd love to see the Chargers who we didn't really enjoy as the team of around the NFL.

I didn't. I'd still like them to bounce back and kind of be that next. You know, they'll live up to it a year later. Kind of like our making the leap guys are always good two years later. Maybe they'll be more fun. They were most attractive two seasons ago down the stretch when they were running the ball 40 times a game down people's throats. They knocked off the Broncos in prime time by doing that.

That's when Matthews was excellent. They've got to get someone back in there. I agree with Dan. Either way, I would like to sign Ryan Matthews. I would like the Patriots to sign him. That would be awesome. Or you'll get him. Get rid of LaGarrett.

Get rid of LaGarrett Blunt. You know, that was nice. Get Ryan Matthews in there. Or have them both. Then bring Blunt back in next December again. Right, exactly. I mean, come on. It's just like, you're just going to get everybody you want,

and then they're all going to revert back to their greatest form. You guys act, it's not like they've been great at free agency. People have Revis on the brain. It's not like they've signed many great. You climb right back up to your throne of ease as the minstrels play. I do know that. The grapes are fed directly into the, The harp is strummed gently.

I do know that we are living on a throne of ease when I was texting with another Patriots fan today. And we were talking about how we kind of enjoy Rex and Buffalo kind of loading up like this because it makes it more fun. You guys should all be in jail. It does make it more fun. Rex is great to have a lot. You have nothing to worry about.

They just traded for Matt Castle. You should be sent to Australia like the British one. This is why Greg loves the Matt Castle signing. Yeah. Just simply removes an AFCU. contender. Eight and eight for the bills. All right, under the radar need.

So I don't get to throw any need out there. You just passed out. You just went, Ryan Matthews page. I thought you used yours up with your Matthews' heat, but go ahead. Oh, that's okay. No, I didn't mean to do that. I was going to just do the most obvious, you know, kind of like Browns receiver, Chiefs receiver.

Okay. Kind of overly obvious. Zero touch notes. I actually had a contest at the desk the other day. If anyone could name who had the second most amount of snaps at wide receiver for the Chiefs last year, Chris Wessling got the right answer. Stunner. I already forget the answer because it was so...

Junior Hemingway, 260 snaps was second on the team, and 260 yards by Albert Wilson was second on the team. And you're probably going to cut the guy who was number one on the team, Dwayne Boe. So that's pretty ugly. Greg was really surprised that Wes knew that, but then he's forgetting that Wes is a toaster legend. TD, everything going good over on that front?

You know it. At producer TD, hashtag WWT. we need three to four hardcore contestants. Getting a lot of contestants. How's Bucky doing, by the way? Is he going to make it today? He's on his way, he texted me. He might be too late.

A lot of podcasts want him. He's like the podcast free agent right now. This is kind of like his rock star move. Yeah, no. You know, it's where 21 minutes past his scheduled arrival time. He's like Castle, you're going to have to trade. You're throwing him out of the bus. This isn't the way to get him to sign.

Does Bucky know that we just passed 10 million podcast with this episode. I mean, is that a type of podcast you want to miss? Well, let him know when he gets here. Okay. If he gets here. Under the radar needs. And I don't know if I had discussed this earlier, Greg.

You have your obvious needs. And then you have your other types of needs that are way under the surface. It's right under that radar. You went way under the radar with yours. I went pretty far under the radar. But let's start. You took it serious. I want to hear dance.

I take the job serious. I like. I'm just looking at Dan. The Chicago Bears Ever since Earl Bennett left down. The Chicago, wait, why are you laughing at me? You don't like Marcus Wilson, I guess. Look at the Chicago Bears who have two tall wide receivers,

but somehow still have a limited offense, and I guess you could say Jay Cutler stanks, but a lot of people seem to think Jay Cutler is a good guy. How about you get somebody a slot guy that could go underneath and really open that offense, wide open? And if you get one guy that makes everything connect the dots, that offense can go from a middle of that. the pack unit to top three in my opinion with Matt Forte there also if uh if this new coaching

staff can finally tame j cutler although i'm not necessarily holding my breath on that i'm not a little randall cob you steal that i'm just going to that's a solution you want a short receiver okay that is under the radar i mean listen when when you're i'm getting bullied by dorky scientists football scientists that come up from their basements i don't think it's crazy i don't think it's crazy because marshall be out of there you put marcus wilson in as a starter and you need a slot guy so screw you guys who's next well i'll i'll try yeah you go ahead mark getting ripped to shreds uh i feel like everything's not under the radar because all we do all day long is just read this nonsense from every team but i'm going oakland pass rushers you know and actually it's kind of a burning

need you've got kulele mac in your front seven who was outstanding last season but reggie mack we talked about this earlier in the show already in the process of getting rid of the free agent bounty he picked up last year because there were a lot of wiffs. One of them, Lamar Woodley, he's out of the building. Justin Tuck, the two of them, you know, all this off-season nonsense about how they've brought these veterans in and this defense is going to be edgy. 22 sacks, a franchise low last season. You've got to get some young guys to rush the passer.

I'm going to say, Mark, I'm not, I will never laugh at your thing because I think that's rude. But I wouldn't call this under the radar. I feel like this is above the radar. room that did not dig my claws into you as your football analysis was unleashed two minutes ago and your move is to turn around. I'm just saying franchise low in sacks, 22 sacks. Your move is to turn around and be that guy. Well, there's a difference between taking criticism and being laughed at.

That's all I'm saying. I'm just saying obvious need for them, not under the radar. You failed. I'm sorry. Not a lot of people are talking about the Raiders, but that's probably just in general, I guess. Right. I'm just hitting out now, Mark. No, it's evident.

Chris Wessling, whatever you say is wrong, but go ahead. Well, I think it's evident that the Titans need a quarterback, but their fans are under the delusion that Zach Mettenberger is the answer, and they are joined by several high-octane football analysts who believe Mettenberger is some kind of franchise quarterback, even though he couldn't finish his last year at LSU, couldn't finish his rookie season, and frankly couldn't move the offense when he was under center.

If they like Marcus Marriota, it'd be foolish to pass on him. quarterback is a major need for the Titans. At the Combine, though, it sure sound like, isn't Hunt at Coach and also Rustin Webster, who is Mr. Excitement, by the way, at GM. They both made it sound like, A, they really, really do just want a quarterback. At number two, that it was an opportunity

that might not come again, or B, they're openly inviting teams to think that, so they'll come up and trade with them. I think it's that second part, which is weird, because Zach Mattenberger is their starter. They're probably, I'm looking at who's going to sign Mark Sanchez, by the way, I don't think there's many options out there. Titans are kind of the...

The rough riders? The one team that still need a 1B starter option. They need a 1A. Right, they do, but that's how they see it, at least. All right, Greg, finally? Well, we close with a bang, you know. Baltimore might have won two Super Bowls in three years if they had a better secondary.

You got Anthony Levine and Roshan Melvin playing big-time snaps in a game where they outplayed the Super Bowl champion Patriots. Lerius Webb might have to be cut because he's paid a lot of money. Jimmy Smith's coming off a thing. They have no safety. So get some...

Coming off a thing. Get some defensive backs. What? He said, coming off a thing. I like that. Mine was under the radar? Not under the radar? No, that was cool.

I thought Gregs was great. Outrageous. Coming off a thing. What is it? Torn Achilles? I was trying to remember... Liz Frank's surgery. That's it.

Those were the under the radar. Wow. What? The tension in the room, not under the radar. I don't like to be laughed at. Hey, hate, hate. Hey, hey, hey, hey. Exactly.

I thought that was rude. I apologize for laughing at you, Dan. I didn't drop a Tweedledy and Tweedledum today. I don't apologize for not laughing at you. I don't know why you went after me, Mark, on this. I wasn't really attacking you. I'm the one that didn't go after you. I know, but I wasn't attacking you,

and I just just saying that maybe that wasn't under the radar. I stopped listening like 10 seconds ago. I stand by everything I said. I demand a trial by coming back. What's going on with Bucky Brooks? By the way, that's a better heat drop than the actual heat. All right. We'll make that good.

Bucky is taping NFL now right now, so he's sad. What? And we're taping here. It's at 127. Guys like Howard Hughes. Power move by Bucky. We'll figure out when we have Bucky on next. All right.

We'll make it work. Apologies to the listeners who were expecting. Bucky, maybe we'll get him in later this week, maybe down the line. Let's be honest. We just filled up a whole show anyways. Yeah. And it was awesome. Oh, tremendous.

And save your tweets about us arguing with each other. We all like each other very much. It's a little fun. You know, having a little fun. Says you. I like, you know, a little creative tension. That's how you get the best work out of people. All right, let's see.

What's coming up this week? We got another show on Friday. It's going to post Friday morning. So it would be a little earlier, and we'll have one on Friday. I think we're going to have a special guest. Wait a see. Do you want to make flowers today? And we'll say no more than that.

What about Thursday on Friday's show? How great would it be if we had that actress on? Is that Matt McConaughey coming on the show? Just tease it like that. All right, all right, all right. Wow. On Friday, why don't we do some sandwich propositions? Oh.

Free agency. Yeah. Okay. I like it. A little free agency pre-Arts. Mark, your thoughts. this idea. Let's do it.

TD can't do any worse than the gold standard did at this one last. Or than TD did. Right. That's true. Yeah, TD currently owes. Calvin, Calvin Johnson, 700 touchdown. That's a good point, TD. Tomorrow, I think, is your time to pay up.

Soon enough, guys. Soon enough. Man, has no integrity. All right. So, yes, we will play the sandwich. We'll go get my lunch. Curse word when we come back on Friday. Thank you for listening.

This is Dan Hansis signing off. Before we go. Yes. You got another drop for us? Celebration song entry. Ooh. Tristan, Tristan from Australia, big time. Tristan is great.

And here's a good one right here. A little early period daft punk. Yeah, Mark likes it. I like that song. That's good songs. Chris looks like he's having a seizure. I have no opinion on that song. Oh.

Come on, Wes. I don't like this one. Oh. I liked it. It's a little too clubby. It's a bit of a low-grade recording. Here's the thing. Why can't we have a song that we like?

Like a song that actually kind of gets you fired up? I will say. It doesn't have to have the word celebrating it. Why can't it be like a cool song instead of these old kind of corny songs? Like Return of the Mac. You love that one. We can mix that in. There you go.

Right. I mean, we've got to find the common ground, basically. I think Farrow Munch. I got one. No, no. I like that punk. Do you guys not like that punk? It was too clubby.

That was a jam, though. That was great. I think that's one of the greatest dance songs ever. But I'm not going to force this through legislation. If people don't want it, it's fine. We'll find a better one. I don't really have a genre called dance songs in my life. All right.

See, we'll figure it all out. Yes, we'll be back on Friday. This is Dan Hansa signing off for Quiet Storm, the Mailman, the boss. Tadee behind the glass. Z. Drizzle. I could see you back there. The Def Pug. Until Friday.